


only forward, only through

by gryfeathr



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Coming of Age, Food, Friendship, Gen, Girl Power Trio, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 12:21:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8890606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gryfeathr/pseuds/gryfeathr
Summary: Karina Lyle is 15 years old. Two hours ago she stood on stage in a skirt too short to count as clothes and heels too high to feel steady, smirking at the cameras while she wondered if blue lipstick and frozen hair was enough of a disguise. Maybe the fake boobs would do it and hide her from her classmates. She’s only got one choice now. There’s no backing out. Only forward, only through.or, How a glitzy super idol becomes friends with a CEO while working on a Hero reality TV show.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lirillith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lirillith/gifts).



Karina Lyle is 15 years old. Two hours ago she stood on stage in a skirt too short to count as clothes and heels too high to feel steady, smirking at the cameras while she wondered if blue lipstick and frozen hair was enough of a disguise. Maybe the fake boobs would do it and hide her from her classmates. She’s only got one choice now. There’s no backing out. Only forward, only through.

Now she’s in a giant ballroom where the chandeliers are made out of real crystal and the floor is lined with gold-flecked marble. Her heels are lower but her dress isn’t any less short, and the earrings pull on her ears. She fidgets with one of them while holding a glass flute filled with sparkling cider in the other hand, watching people whose faces and names belong on late night TV and economics programs mix with pop stars and politicians. She doesn’t know even half of their names, but her handler from Titan Industries is at her side to introduce, talk over and around and about her, to every single one. 

Karina smiles. She feels eyes on her legs and butt, like hands, and she hates it. She doesn’t dare drink anything because the blue lipstick will smear, and its her first line of defense. She needs every weapon she can get. 

They ask her what it’s like to be a new hero. They say how nice when she says she’s a singer. 

She’s bored out of her mind.

To her left, the crowd splits. Fire Emblem is outrageous; he’s wearing a suit of gold lame and red fabric that somehow matches the dramatic shapes of his mask, mouth curved into a perfect cat’s smile. She can’t catch how he manages to insinuated himself into the cluster of black suits and grey hair around her, all of them old men, all of them a little too close. But one minute she’s wondering if it would be a bad impression to give frost-bite to someone’s hand and the next Fire Emblem is there, glittering and glimmering, and lifting her drink out of her hand.

It’s frosty with gathering ice crystals; Fire Emblem doesn’t seem to notice.

“Oh, hello, it’s lovely to meet you. That dress looks splendid on you, darling.”

Karina steps back, then hates that she steps back, she can’t back down in front of the Heroes. Competition. She knows how to handle competition and she knows the cut throat nature of performance. Already, its not that different from fighting for solos in chorus and attention at piano practice, it’s not that different from the shoving and fighting in the amateur idol world. 

She smiles, unsure of what to make of this, to make of him.

“Thanks. You look great,” she says, because compliments can be weapons. “I look forward to working with you.”

“It’s delightful to have another lovely lady on the show. Honestly, I enjoy the view, but it gets tiresome dealing with all the testosterone every day,” Fire Emblem says, rolling his eyes. “Come, now, you’ll let me steal you for a minute, won’t you?”

“I would love to, but,” says Karina, glancing aside at her handler, but the woman is currently deeply engaged in talking with a short gentlemen with balding hair. She thinks he’s the head of Pepsi’s marketing. 

“Oh don’t worry about them, dear,” and Karina finds her elbow taken in delicate, strong fingers as she’s turned away. It’s hard to protest—she tries, sputtering—as Fire Emblem spirits her away. They’re several clusters of executives away when Fire Emblem sighs, shaking his head.

“The buffet table is much less vexing, let me tell you,” Fire Emblem confides in her ear. “Oh!”

Karina, reeling, can’t handle the sudden rise in Fire Emblem’s voice as he spots something. He puts a hand over his mouth pressed into an o, the picture of delight. “Look at that, they /do/ have macaroons. You must try them with me!”

Karina tries to reclaim her drink from him; he lifts it right out of the way, part of a natural gesture that is far too convenient, and he sways his way over to the table. Karina stares after him, hands empty, the crowds milling around her with whispers and sidelong glances. She hears someone murmur about the hem line of her dress.

Between the two choices, Fire Emblem is safer. She smooths the silk draped over her arms, lifting her chin and turning to pin the source of the whisper with her eyes. It’s a woman with heavy diamonds around her neck hanging on to the arm of a young man she thinks she recognizes from cologne ads. 

“At least I make it look good,” Karina murmurs to herself. She winds through the crowds and finds Fire Emblem with a plate balanced in one hand and a selection of pastries growing on it. Small finger foods perfectly sized for people wearing lipstick; pastel morsels dusted with sugars and edible gold. Fire Emblem turns as she catches up— her drink has disappeared— and offers her the plate.

“You must try the blue one. Orange Blossom and vanilla, a bit boring, but a nice combination,” he says. Karina looks down at her long nails, press on acrylics they promised would be easy to take off later before she had school on Monday. Small pearls are clustered near her cuticles and sharp lines cut through the tips.

She plucks a blue macaroon into her hands and pops it in her mouth. The shell melts away and the cream spreads on her tongue, and when she breaths in the scent of orange washes over the back of her mouth.

She must look surprised. Fire Emblem makes a pleased sound and picks up a red one, to match, and the corners of his mouth turn up as he lets it melt on his tongue.

“Lovely, isn’t it?” Fire Emblem sighs. He leans in. His lipstick is perfect. “They at least spend as much money of the food as they do on the decorations, it’s an advantage.”

Karina stares down at her fingertips dusted with sugar now.

“At least the food’s good,” she says, voice sharp. “Can I have my drink back?”

“Of course dear,” Fire Emblem says, and it’s deposited back into her fingers. “But I would love to give you a friendly tip among ladies of good taste. They hate it when you notice them talking behind your back.”

Karina freezes. Fire Emblem’s smile is curved and friendly, and he tilts his head slightly. Karina turns to look despite herself; the woman from earlier with the heavy diamonds is nearby with her hand over her mouth, but it does nothing to smother the words.

“Can you believe it? She barely looks like she’s out of grade school and wearing a skirt like that?”

Karina’s back stiffens and her fingers clutch at the glass. Fire Emblem clicks his tongue in disappointment.

“What a shame that they have nothing better to do than envy you,” he sighs. 

Emboldened Karina lifts her chin. She stares back, catching the woman’s eye. Karina is a swan; a vicious creature clothed in downy feathers. She’s tall and magnificent and she stares the woman down, holding her place. 

Karina’s heart is racing. Its pounding worse than the two seconds between when the stage manager whispered, “That’s your cue,” and when Karina walked out on stage for the first time.

A minute passes. Karina’s determination wavers. 

The woman’s will splinters before her eyes. She splutters. She coughs into her drink and looks away from her, changing the conversation topic abruptly. She cannot match Karina.

Drunk on the feeling, Karina feels light headed and unsteady. She throws back half the glass and the bubbles buzz against the back of her nose and teeth.

“That’s the spirit, honey,” says Fire Emblem, voice warm with an approval that Karina can’t help but soak up. “How about we find you another drink?”

“Sure. By the way, I don’t need any help,” says Karina. 

“Oh, I know,” says Fire Emblem, his smile wide, and behind the mask Karina thinks his eyes must be sparkling. “But us girls need to stick together.”

Karina drops her glass down on an empty spot in the buffet. She touches her lips to check her lipstick; her fingertips come away still blue.

“Lead the way,” she says.

—

Karina Lyle is still fifteen. The street lights smear the buildings outside of Apollon Media in gold in the heavy darkness of almost one in the morning, and occasionally a passing car runs past in a blur. She stands inside the lobby just beyond the security check-in, watching for the paid car through the windows. She shrugs her jacket up over her shoulders and scrolls through her phone, the lobby empty, the employees all gone home.

She reads the same posts over and over of her friends complaining about tests and pop stars. There’s a science quiz on Monday. Halley is freaking out about it but she went to bed thirty minutes ago.

Karina wants to scream.

She wants to write “I was shot at by this dude and he nearly missed me and then I saved a girl?” into the Internet. 

She wanted to ask if she is supposed to feel like this, like her body isn’t really her body. That her hands belong to someone else while her stomach knots together and she wants to throw up.

It wasn’t like this an hour ago. An hour ago, she’d felt great.

They’d told her it was a little dangerous sometime but they never expected her to get into the fray. Just look good, just look pretty. But Karina wouldn’t settle for watching the other Heroes run into danger while she stood on the sidelines screaming. When she went in with her personal trainer every weekend she demanded he show her take downs. She runs until her thighs burn. She hates the hand weights but she uses them, ever since she tried to haul up a woman from a sink hole and failed and had to watch that stupid Wild Tiger guy do it for her.

She’d gotten double points for a flawless rescue and a take down. The head of Titan Industries had called her to congratulate her on the phone. Rock Bison had said something about a good job. 

She should feel good. She’s sure she should feel accomplished or happy or something.

In the lobby, there is only her and the dull light of her phone screen. The racing shaky feeling under her breastbone refuses to shut off. 

The even staccato of heels echo from behind her. Karina looks up, startled, and her heart jumps into her throat and its stupid how on edge she is. 

Fire Emblem sweeps across the smooth marble floors of the lobby. He’s a civilian again, as much as a CEO can be a civilian, in a dark blue suit with stripes of subtle sequins and a Coach bag hanging from his shoulder. He’s got his phone in one hand, lips pursed, and reads as he walks. Karina stares in disbelief. It’s too weird to suddenly realize that someone else is there, that someone else was late getting out of the police statements and changing room and wanted a shower to feel half human again.

Their eyes meet. It’s too late to pretend to be disinterested now.

The edge of his mouth quirks up, and it’s far more deadly without the mask on. Karina feels her face flush. Fire Emblem has the ability to fluster people and she isn’t yet immune. She inhales sharply and looks away, huffing, and pretends not to notice. She’s forgotten what she was doing. They know each other, but not really. Not outside of the Hero Lounge and not outside of the cameras. She never got his real name, she just knows he’s in charge of his own company. It’s awkward and stupid and her phone isn’t helping her ignore the sound of footsteps drawing close to join her by the windows.

“Waiting for your ride?” Fire Emblem asks. His voice echoes off the marble, too loud, too bright, too cheerful for the chill that has settled into her like nausea. “I’d think Titan could afford a descent hired driver for you, after forcing you to go dancing around the city all night.”

“It’s not that bad,” Karina says, determined to sound bored. She stares through her phone. “Better than trying to take the subway at this time of night. Don’t you have a car?”

“Oh, not here. After all, I didn’t know I’d be driving home from the Apollon Media building today.”

“Oh. Right.” Karina doesn’t know what else to say. Silence presses in. She stares at her phone, but the light’s starting to hurt her eyes and she can’t register the words anymore. She grimaces and puts a hand to her forehead, shutting her eyes. 

“There’s a cafe around the corner,” Fire Emblem says. “It’s still open.”

Karina squints at him suspiciously past her fingers. 

“I’m not hungry,” she says, feeling her stomach roll at the thought of food. Fire Emblem is smiling, indulgent. He shifts his weight to one hip and arches an eyebrow.

“Do you really want to wait around this creepy lobby for twenty more minutes? Its where I was going. They can pick you up from anywhere, dear.”

Karina thinks about the way the lobby echoes and the shakiness in her knees. The last time she’d eaten was a shoved lunch while frantically trying to finish homework over six hours ago. Maybe that’s why she feels like she’s going to fall over. 

“Sure,” she says. “Are you going to pay for it?”

Fire Emblem laughs. The warm sound fills the air and Karina finds her cheeks burning with embarrassment, but she’s also smiling despite herself. It infects her.

“Honey, I’m not going to let a pretty young girl pay for anything while I’m around,” he says, winking, and Karina’s cheeks burn brighter.

They end up in a small chain cafe that sits inside the lobby of a neighboring sky scraper that belongs to an Apollon Media subsidiary. Fire Emblem knows the late night staff. He exchanges kisses on the cheek with the only waitress still around and chooses a table at the corner where they can watch the road for their cars and orders a fancy soda with layers of syrup that look like a sunset and Karina orders a water. She watches thick droplets form on the outside of the glass and balances them on her fingertips, debating freezing them into small crystals. It’s easier than making up things to say.

“It’s not easy being a girl on this kind of show,” Fire Emblem says, apropos of nothing. Karina jerks her eyes up to his face; his chin is in his hand, and he’s idly stirring jellies shaped like stars into his drink. The colors run together into a muddy purple. “You did a good job today.”

Karina scowls before she can stop herself. She sinks down in her seat, looking out the window.

“Yeah. I guess.” She shrugs. 

“Oh, come now! You swept the points and managed to steal a civvie from our Wind Wizard. You should be proud of yourself.”

“Just doesn’t feel that special, I guess,” Karina says. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Now that doesn’t sound like our Blue Rose,” he says, eyebrows lifted. 

“I just don’t feel good, that’s all,” Karina hedges. She hasn’t drunk any of the water. Part of her is convinced she won’t be able to keep it down. Fire Emblem hums. The waitress comes back and he orders a plate of fries to share and Karina shakes her head when he asks her what she wants. He doesn’t push her. He tells her about his secretary, a woman named Denise who keeps him in line and is a master of excuses. 

“You’re a CEO, I thought you ran your company,” Karina says, confused, but Fire Emblem laughs. 

“Oh, honey, I have to keep my identity secret just like the rest of you. It’s an old tradition, but I find it charming. It would be awfully suspicious if I magically disappeared every time an episode of HeroTV comes on.”

“Then what do you do?” says Karina.

“Denise covers my ass,” he says, lifting his brows, and Karina laughs. She’s startled by the sound of her own voice. She puts her hand over her mouth, dazed, as the fries show up. Fire Emblem isn’t bad company, and the smell of the food is actually nice instead of stomach turning. Fire Emblem insists they share; Karina tries a piece. It goes down okay, and he doesn’t comment on how she finishes the lion’s share of the plate. 

He’s funny. By the time they’re done she knows all about Denise’s excuses, her dogs, and her love life that seems to change every week. The weird feeling in her stomach is gone and when her phone buzzes, she jumps and is shocked to realize it’s the car.

“Oh, go on,” Fire Emblem says, smiling and flicking his fingertips at her. Karina feels awkward as she gathers up her school bag and coat to scoot out of the booth, leaving him alone with an empty plate and two empty glasses. 

“Sorry, I have to go. Uhm. Thanks,” Karina says, and she finds she means it. Fire Emblem winks at her.

“Call me Nathan, darling,” he says, and Karina does. 

—

Karina Lyle is sixteen. Sometimes Nathan takes her out to eat when the show runs late or her impromptu concert runs long. He learns that she likes sweets but hates french toast. She learns that Nathan owns several side businesses, including a few bars, and that Skyhigh likes the lemonade. They gossip over magazines in the break room sometimes and cheer on Dragon Kid when she breaks a personal voltage record. They exchange high quality make up samples from sponsors trying to court them and once Karina cries over a personal song being rejected from inclusion on her next single and he spirits a giant parfait with three types of ice cream into the break room to cheer her up. 

At some point Nathan’s more like a big sister than a co-worker and he can’t fluster her anymore, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

—

Karina Lyle is seventeen. 

In the cold, in the dark, Karina accepts the heavy blanket from the EMT personnel with numb hands. Victory and adrenaline had mixed into a heady cocktail that kept her going despite the tight squeeze of an explosive collar and a brush with death, but now it’s draining away. She doesn’t need to be strong for anyone now. Kaede has gone into Kotetsu’s arms. Shakes have slipped into her hands, but she recognizes it; the aftermath of snatching victory out of a near miss. She knows what it is now. 

She huddles underneath scratchy wool and watches people scatter. The blown-out remains of the Justice Tower looms above her, casting occasional flickers of orange and white over everything as electronics catch fire and explode. The dull thuds of sound can’t even surprise her, now, as her thoughts crowd with the last things Kotetsu said.

I’m retiring.

It’s too much to take in at once. She rubs a hand over her face, smearing makeup despite all the primer. Her eyes burn but she can’t cry anymore. All the tears were wrung out of her already when she thought Kotetsu had died. No one’s ever died, not like this. In three years of Hero business she’s been at accidents where they loose people and one time she gave someone frostbite, but it’s never been someone she knows. It’s never been someone so close to her heart that the thought of them gone had ripped through her and left her numb with disbelief. 

It hadn’t lasted long enough to leave a scar and the relief washed away most of the harm, but Karina wants to just go home.

“There you are, honey,” and then Nathan is there. He’s still suited up but there’s a coat on over the flutter of his cape. There’s a paper cup in his hands and he pushes it into her space, near her chest. Karina takes it from him numbly, letting the warmth seep in past her costume gloves and into her palms. 

“He said he’s retiring,” Karina says. Saying the words aloud still doesn’t feel real, and her voice doesn’t sound like her own.

“You know people say a lot of things in the heat of the moment,” says Nathan mildly.

“Retiring! How could he retire!” Karina’s voice lifts and the numbness cracks; instead, she’s just unbelievably angry. She gestures violently with her cup and some tea sloshes out of the side and over the back of her hand and leaves dark droplets on the blanket. “I’m going to march over there and punch some sense into him!”

“You know it’s his decision,” says Nathan. He bends over to gather his cape over his arm like the train of a dress, elegant and still flickering, and sits down next to her. The back end of the EMT truck dips a little with their combined weight. “It’s going to be alright.”

“No it’s not. He’s not allowed to just—go away and come back and then just leave like that,” Karina says, and her noise feels thick with snot. She rubs her nose with the back of her hand. “It’s not fair.”

“Kotetsu can be a little dim at times, but he’s not an idiot. Well, most of the time,” Nathan amended, and Karina humphed into her cup. “It’s not a light decision for him. Drink your tea, it’ll make you feel better.”

Nathan is usually right. Karina sips the tea. She doesn’t feel cold the same way most people do, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t appreciate a warm drink on a cold night. The heat burns down her throat and thaws her ribs and lungs, and it’s easier to breathe. Her nose clears a little and she sniffs and holds the cup in both hands between her knees.

“What’ll I do?” she says, voice small.

“You’ll do what every broken heart does,” says Nathan. “You’ll get through this and find a handsome young thing with a much better track record for damage fines. Perhaps after eating an entire carton of ice cream.”

The laugh spills out of her in a dry lurch of sound. Karina sighs, leans her head back against the truck behind her, and studies the stars. Through the brilliant lights of Sternbild, she can just barely make out a constellation against the black. She thinks it might be Orion.

“You’re buying the ice cream,” she says, and Nathan laughs and promises that he will.

**Author's Note:**

> I love this series, and I've loved Lirillith's writing for a very long time. I hope this is a fitting Yuletide gift for an author that's given me a lot of joy over the past years. I hope you enjoyed!


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